A friend of mine recently told me that her daily skin care regime includes all Origins products. I was so glad she told me so I could let her in on a little secret…Origins skin care products are not very good!

 

I currently use some of their body products and I used to use their face products until I did some research on them. According to Paula Begoun, author of Don’t Go To the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, 7th Edition by Paula Begoun and Bryan Barron [Publisher: Beginning Press] [www.cosmeticscop.com]), all 84 skin care products received a poor rating! The only Origins products that received a very good or good rating was their makeup.

 

Paula bases her reviews on the actual formula of a product – not her own personal experience or her feelings about a particular company.  Her reviews are based on a products potential for irritation, dryness, breakouts, sensitivities, greasiness, anti-wrinkle claims, exfoliation potential, healing, antioxidant value, sun protection, and other issues of performance and if a company is overcharging for its products or is dishonest in their claims and literature.

 

Here is list of what my friend is using and Paula’s review and well as a review of the entire Origins line:

 

A Perfect World by Origins 😦

Claims:

Origins has uncovered the key to longer-lasting look of youth, health and vitality – utopia’s own Silver Tip White Tea. It helps banish youth offenders long before they cause visible signs of oxidation, deterioration, dehydration.

Review:

A Perfect World, White Tea Skin Guardian is a silicone- and water-based serum that contains some good antioxidants (and in stable packaging), but ultimately just irritates skin due to the bergamot, lemon peel, spearmint, and rosewood oils it contains. Your face will smell great, but that has nothing to do with taking the best possible care of skin.

 

Plantidote Mega-Mushroom Face Serum by Origins 😦

Claims:

Optimizes skin’s defenses against aging. Daily use will result in a renewed radiance and clarity. Skin will look and feel calmer, healthier and less stressed.

Review:

Plantidote Mega-Mushroom Face Serum is a water-based serum that contains a large number of skin-beneficial ingredients, including efficacious plant oils (the kind that aren’t fragrant and protect skin), glycerin, lecithin, and many antioxidants, including olive oil, turmeric, and several species of mushrooms. Things go awry then because Origins just couldn’t resist adding irritating fragrant oils to the Plantidote products. Lavender, orange, patchouli, geranium, and mandarin oils all have volatile compounds that counter the soothing, anti-inflammatory effects of the ingredients that precede them. Dr. Weil could have easily found this out from a number of sources, including the medical journal search engine at http://www.pubmed.com (the National Institutes of Health Web site), http://www.naturaldatabase.com, and other resources. The oils assuredly make this serum smell wonderful, which is great for your nose, but they aren’t helpful to skin in the least, and prevent this product from being recommended. Without these questionable, problematic fragrant extras, this could have been one of the more intelligently formulated antioxidant serums available.

 

Youthtopia, Skin Firming Cream with Rhodiola by Origins 😦

Claims:

These patent-pending formulas help empower skin to rebound from damaging stress, retrieve its youthful buoyancy and reduce the look of lines and wrinkles. Plant Peptides and Vitamin C help enhance skin’s natural collagen production. Buckbean Extract helps firm and lift the appearance of slack contours. And Sunflower and Barley rebuild skin’s moisture barrier. Skin rallies, reanimates with a renewed radiance. In 8 week clinical tests, women who regularly used Youthtopia Skin firming cream with Rhodiola experienced a 44% reduction in the look of lines and a 61% lift in skin’s appearance.

Review:

Youthtopia, Skin Firming Cream with Rhodiola. I have to hand it to Origins for coming up with some of the most clever product names around, because they convey a sense of cuteness. I wish what was inside the jars was just as clever, because—despite some very good ingredients—Origins’ penchant for potent, skin-sensitizing essential oils makes almost all of their products too irritating for skin, as is the case with this moisturizer. It contains sandalwood, geranium, orange, patchouli, cinnamon, nutmeg, and thyme oils, all of which present problems for skin and won’t do a thing to help it regain its youthful appearance.

 

ORIGINS product line review by Paula Begoun:

Started in 1990, Origins was Estee Lauder’s contribution to the (still going strong) demand for natural products. Their approach and claims all hinge on the wonder of plants and the allegedly miraculous properties they offer for skin, whether it be dry, sensitive, oily, or simply showing the effects of time. Here’s the issue: Just as there are good and bad synthetic ingredients, there are good and bad natural ones. Ironically, Origins isn’t all that “natural” because it uses its share of synthetic ingredients, and the plant extracts they do use include some that are bad for skin.

 

I have never been opposed to using natural ingredients. However, it lacks integrity when a company throws in any plant ingredient with no proven benefit for skin beyond anecdotal information, and then boasts about all sorts of improbable results. It becomes a far more serious issue when the natural ingredients in question have published research showing that they are in fact irritating or damaging to skin. That’s the predicament of reviewing Origins’ skin care products: almost every product they sell contains several volatile oils (another term for essential oils), all of which have their share of negative qualities when used on skin. In their attempt to appear more natural, Origins uses quite a bit of these offending ingredients, and they’re often listed before the much more beneficial additives, such as antioxidants, cell-communicating ingredients, and skin-identical ingredients.

 

You might be wondering why, if Origins has had such continued success, their products can be such a problem for skin? Can’t women just use what they like? The answer is two-fold, yes women can use what they like, but often women like what isn’t good for them. For example, smoking is bad for skin (and for your lungs), but lots of people smoke; getting a tan from the sun is bad for your skin, but lots of people spend time outdoors getting a tan; and using products that contain irritating ingredients is bad for your skin, and lots of products come to the table with these inconsistencies.

 

As I explained in the introduction to this book, there is a litany of problems that take place when skin is irritated or inflamed, but fundamentally this results in the skin’s immune system becoming impaired, collagenase (the breakdown of collagen) occurs, and the skin is stripped of its outer protective barrier. What is perhaps most shocking is that all of these damaging responses can be taking place underneath the skin and you won’t even notice it on the surface. The clearest example of this is the significant and carcinogenic effect of the sun’s “silent” UVA rays. You don’t feel the penetration of these mutagenic rays, but they are taking a toll on your skin nonetheless (Sources: Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, March 2006, pages 30–38; International Journal of Toxicology, May-June 2006, pages 183–193; Skin Research and Technology; November 2001, pages 227–237; Dermatologic Therapy, January 2004, pages 16–25; American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, May 2004, pages 327–337; Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, November 2003, pages 663–669; Drugs, 2003 volume 63, issue 15, pages 1579–1596; Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, March 2002, pages 138–146; Cosmetics & Toiletries, November 2003, page 63; Global Cosmetics, February 2000, pages 46–49; and Contact Dermatitis, February 1995, pages 83–87).

 

Most of the Lauder companies really have their acts together when it comes to formulating state-of-the-art moisturizers, serums, and sunscreens that leave out the problematic plant extracts (and that represents a lot of products given the almost two dozen cosmetics companies under the Lauder corporate banner). Origins is the exception, and I encourage my readers who prefer to shop for skin care at the department store to explore the truly far better options from Clinique, Estee Lauder, Prescriptives, M.A.C., Bobbi Brown, or even La Mer. Even salon-styled Aveda, also owned by Lauder, with a natural theme similar to Origins, has less problematic formulas.

 

For more information about Origins, owned by Estee Lauder, call (800) 674-4467 or visit http://www.origins.com.